Thursday, December 17, 2015

review || OPEN WOUNDS { blog tour } by Camille Taylor

Internal Affairs officer Kellie Munroe is investigating one of her own…

Kellie and Detective Amelia Donovan were childhood friends, until a horrifying event destroyed their friendship. Now Amelia is slated for promotion to Superintendent, but her career is in jeopardy following a physical altercation with a suspect, and her history with Kellie complicates the already sensitive investigation.

Darryl is loyal, ethical, and dedicated to his work, but he can’t contain his curiosity about Kellie, who always seems to push his partner’s buttons. When their investigation leads to criminal kingpin Dick Coleani and a string of murdered men, an attempt on their lives sends Kellie into a panic, reigniting memories of her childhood trauma.

As Darryl helps Kellie through her fear, he can no longer deny his attraction to her…but he wants more than the broken, traumatised woman feels capable of giving.

Terrifying personal threats force Kellie to pursue answers in secret…

When Kellie begins to suspect this case and Coleani might somehow be connected to her own personal nightmare, she will need help from both Darryl and Amelia as she plunges down a perilous path.

But will Darryl be able to rein in her quest for justice before the past repeats itself and Kellie is left with another—possibly fatal—open wound?

{ about camille taylor } .

Camille Taylor is an Australian author who resides in the Nation’s Capital with her small dog. She was the typical 90’s kid and was raised on Goosebumps, Roald Dahl and Paul Jennings. In her teens she began reading the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie and in later years found Christine Feehan, Janet Evanovich and Julie Garwood. She started writing at sixteen and enjoys spending time with her family, doting on her nieces and nephews, writing the many stories floating about her head and working on her genealogy where she can trace her heritage to England, Scotland, Ireland and Russia. Her other interests include, anything creative—such as scrapbooking and drawing and has travelled across Western Europe, New Zealand and the UAE, after spending a year living in London. She’s also dabbled in tae kwon do.

{ excerpt } .

Kellie Munroe increased the speed and incline on her running machine. Her heart was racing and she could feel the stitch on her side. She was breathing fast and sweating profusely, her long blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.
Her body protested every step, every breath, telling her she wasn’t as fit as she should be. For twelve years, Kellie had prided herself for being as physically fit as possible although due to her current workload she had become slack with her visits to the gym. She continued to run until she could no longer keep going, her legs jelly. She turned off the machine and took a deep drink from her water bottle, swallowing half the contents as she wiped the sweat from her brow with a small towel. She glanced at her watch. Her lunch break was long over. She would have loved to spend some time lifting weights, building her physical strength, but she knew she had to get back to work.

She stretched her aching body on the yoga mat nearby as her heart rate slowed down.

“Looking good, Munroe,” a voice said from behind her.

She looked over her shoulder to find Detective Sergeant Nicholas Doyle grinning at her. She realised her position, her behind up in the air as she reached out for her toes.

“You’d better not be thinking what I think you’re thinking, Detective. It could be viewed as sexual harassment, and I would hate to report you,” she informed him, knowing full well he wasn’t. Nick was friend.

His grin got bigger and he gave her a wink. “You know me.”

“Yes I do, Nick.” She sat down on the mat, changing the angle of the stretch, the muscles in her thighs tingling as she held the position.

She and Nick often bantered. He was the only one she felt comfortable enough to tease. Neither of them ever took any offence to what the other said. Some days she needed his teasing barbs. It helped push her past her endurance while training.

“Haven’t seen you around lately,” he commented.

She studied his hard body and tight muscles, black hair and piercing blue eyes. It was unfair to the rest of the male species, Nick having taken more than his share of good looks and charm.

“You obviously haven’t been missing a session.”

He shrugged and flexed a muscle. She refrained from rolling her eyes. Nick was a decent guy and much to the disappointment of the female officers never dated anyone he worked with, however remotely. He was the only son in a family of five, and had been instilled with strong, protective, and tender feelings towards the fairer sex. He was an ‘unofficial’ big brother, having taken all his fellow female colleagues under his wing. If anyone messed with them, they’d be messing with him.

“I could get you in real good shape, Munroe, just let me know when you want it.”

She nodded. “I will thanks,” she said sincerely. “We’ll get right down and dirty.”

Nick grinned, showing his white teeth as he reached down and brought Kellie to her feet in an easy motion. She knew she wasn’t heavy, weighing the right amount for her body type, but Nick could make even the heaviest woman feel no more than a feather. “Right.”

They were of course talking about self-defence, which Nick taught once a week at the LAC’s internal gym. He made sure that every female officer attended his classes and that each walked away with the tools and confidence they needed to defend themselves.

Nick Doyle was a good guy. She could see why the women all flocked towards him. If he had been so inclined, he could easily play the field, but Nick was the monogamous type. He loved being in a relationship but had yet to find the right woman.

“Well, I’ve got to hit the shower,” she said. If she rushed she could be dressed and back at her desk in ten minutes. If she was lucky.

“Sure. I’ll see you later, Munroe.”

In the shower room, she washed the sweat from her body, careful not to get her hair wet. She dried herself off and dressed in her dark navy blue skirt that stopped at her knees. She tucked in her white short-sleeved blouse and carefully applied some blush and clear gloss to her lips, then coated her long blonde eyelashes with mascara. After pulling out her ponytail and brushing her hair, she let it fall to the curve of her breasts, her bangs blending into her hair. She put on her shoes—a pair of three inch black heels—and got into the elevator, making her way up to the top floor of Harbour Bay’s LAC building where the office of Special Crimes and Internal Affairs—SCIA—was housed.

She exited the elevator and started toward her work station directly ahead, the first cubical on the floor. Her boss dumped a file on her slightly disorganised desk and started to walk away.

“Hey, you can’t just dump and run,” she announced, and sped up her pace as fast as she could, hindered by her skirt and heels to catch up to him.

Kellie picked up the folder and waved it in front of her boss’s face.

“What’s this?”

Her boss, Lewis Carlisle, ran his fingers through what was left of his hair. He was one of the unfortunate men whose hairline receded far too early. “New case. A complaint was made that one of the detectives downstairs was being a little rough with the crims.”

Her eyebrow shot up as she opened the folder. “A little rough?”

Kellie’s breath caught in her throat as her gaze found the official police department’s photo of Detective Inspector Amelia Donovan. She read the name on the file in case by some accident it had been misfiled. It hadn’t.

Amelia’s file was thick, filled with recommendations and what seemed like a matching amount of complaints that had been filed against her for rough handling.

Detective Donovan was ambitious and it was no secret she took no shit from anyone, least of all the criminals she brought in. She commanded a lot of respect from her colleagues and worked hard for it. She didn’t let the fact she was a woman deter her, nor did she ask for preferential treatment. She gave it as good as she got.

Kellie glanced up at Carlisle. He watched her closely.

“Sir, you know I can’t take the case.”

Lewis exhaled loudly as if she purposely went out of her way to make things hard for him. “You’re the only one I can spare at the moment. Both Holly and Fitzsimmons are buried deep in their cases.”

Clark Holly and Frank Fitzsimmons were the two other high ranking officers within the SCIA. While both were fine men and good cops on their own, Holly was an anal son-of-a-bitch who took the hide out of anyone who so much as dared to borrow his stapler. Fitzsimmons was more laid back, a veteran of thirty years who went home to his wife and children every night.

“And the personal history?” she asked.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. After all, you’re a professional and I have the upmost respect for your opinion. I know you’ll not let personal entanglements sway your decisions.”

If only she had his confidence. It had been some time since she had seen Amelia. They no longer ran in the same circles and neither had sought the other out. Even though they worked in the same town, on different floors of the same building, they never spoke. She wasn’t certain this would go over well. Even without the past between them, she was IA and automatically despised by most cops, some seeing her as something lower than the criminals they arrested and Mia was sure to be no different.

Kellie believed in what she was doing, and the truth was somebody had to do it, so why not her? Someone had to police the police. Cops were not above the law and they needed to know they still answered to someone.

It would be difficult, and Mia wouldn’t help the situation.

The next few weeks were not going to be easy, and not just because of the present situation but because of the past as well. The past which hung over them like a dark grey cloud, forever threatening a storm.

But there was a difference between personal and professional. Now all she had to do was act the part. She gave hear boss a curt nod before turning her attention to Mia’s file, reading the complaint that had prompted the IA investigation.

Twenty minutes later she was on her way to the second floor. She tried to calm her knotting stomach as the ensuing confrontation filled her mind.

{ review } .

One of the things I first noted in book one, NOT FORGOTTEN (no formal review, but another 4-star title), was that the scenes play out like a silent movie -- something that carried through into this second story in the HARBOUR BAY series. Where the previous opens with a very brutal scene in young Hallie's life, this book opens with Darryl and his partner, Amelia, on a crime scene. The scene is graphically described to the reader, but the one thing that was missing for me was the sound. Yes, the author used words such as "bustling", but I couldn't hear anything. It was as if Darryl was looking at the scene with earplugs; even his thoughts were nearly muted.

However, the moments of dialogue shortly after Darryl's digesting of the crime scene were filled with character appreciation -- we learn really quick just how hard and to-the-point Amelia could be, a fact that helped drive her friendship with Kellie, and later, Kellie's need for Amelia's approval of things between herself and Darryl.

The plot, the suspense... it was very well written. The growing relationship between Kellie and Darryl was well written as well. But for the reader who needs noise, the one who needs dialogue... this is a story that has it's slow moments. If you can get past those things, though, the story has it's enjoyable moments and the people are easy to fall for. While not necessary to read book one, it was definitely fun to get to see Matt, Natalie, and Hallie again, and to hear Darryl's thoughts on his once partner, Matt.

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a quick note from { mignon } ...

I AM NO LONGER ACTIVE IN REVIEWING

The last two years has been incredibly rewarding, giving me the opportunity to pick up new-to-me authors, as well as new-to-the-world authors. I have enjoyed supporting publishing houses as well as the indie author, and in doing so, I learned a lot about the marketing aspect of writing a book and selling it as a self-published author.

I have re-focused my journey to more writing-minded. I still read and review! But not nearly at the rate I was; three books a day has turned to three books a month.

I will no longer be accepting individual review requests (unless it's specifically author-to-author, then it will be highly considered).

I will definitely be posting reviews for commitments I have already made, though.Thank you for understanding, & thank you to all those I have worked with over the last year plus!

GOODREADS updates

He is the exact public person I despise. You know the type -- all biblical with publicized praying and verses all over his public persona. Great. Good for you. Bet you're not like that behind closed doors...

Which is exactly what Esther thinks of him.

Saint and Esther attend the same super religious college. Esther is on the fast track to becoming a nun, and no I do not kid, and Saint, given name Francis, can do just about whatever he wants, because he is the star athlete and the school knows he has connections. What in the world can these two have in common? The actions of their parents.

But where Saint does what his father says, usually, because his father is pushing him toward a pro-football careers, Esther follows her parents (father) because if she didn't... Her life would literally be a living hell.

I really enjoyed these two, once we started to get to know Saint a little bit better. My only drawback with the book would be the last half goes by in super-fast time. While it helped to keep the story moving, I would have liked to see more of that time drawn out so the feelings and emotions of our two characters felt more genuine and real -- rather than simply a two month courting that their lives demanded.

I'm giving the book the full 5 stars because it came out of left-field for me. It was a book that I didn't expect to like, but the author wove it in a way that I fell hard for our characters both as individuals and as a couple. I liked watching Esther grow and find her voice in life, just as I liked watching playboy, always for the chase Saint, settle down and find a person to be terribly protective over. I loved him most in the last two chapters.

Here's something you may know about me if you've followed my reviews -- I'm an epilogue reader. I will almost always read the epilogue first. Call me a spoilsport or no fun, or whatever but that's how I've been reading books for years. It's no wonder that when I write books, I tend to have the epilogue all figured out before I even start with "Once upon a time...".

That said... I read this epilogue and while I liked it, I just couldn't get past the ages of our characters. Couldn't do it. So I read the beginning. Still... If anything, the age of our characters was even more pronounced. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to read this. You see, I have an issue with "Happily ever after" and the hardly-twenty crowd, let alone an eighteen year old.

But that's my hang-up.

Another thing you may know about me? I will sometimes read a book in what I call a inside-out fashion. I jump all over the place until I find a snippet of story that absolutely grips me. And people -- there are a few of those parts in Everything. So because I found those gripping parts, I put my faith in Erin Noelle, and I started from page one -- and I gave Everett and Belle a chance.

And I'm so glad I did.

Everett and his twin sister have been making music forever -- literally. They're the children of a rockstar; music has always been their life. When their father's group decides to get back together (dad always said he'd go back when the twins were done with school), Mason tells the label -- if you take me, you're taking my kids: thus, giving Everett and Ashlynn the opportunity to take their music to a larger level than they have before.

Along the way, with a local gig, Everett meets Belle -- and so begins their story.

This is a story about growing up. This is a story about following your heart -- be it for a person or a career, or even both. It is about learning to trust the person you are giving your heart to, and about taking the ever-looming jump into unknown feelings. When you put your life, your wants, your desires in someone else's hands, the world opens up -- and it certainly does for Everett and Belle.

The part I most appreciated was that the author made Everett true to his age and situation. Belle was too, yes, but it was Everett and his new lifestyle that had me wanting to see true characterization for. He's a guy; he's a musician; he's new to love. He makes mistakes. And for those mistakes, I truly got on board with this story.

Everett and his Tinker Bell were incredibly cute. I liked that there's a decent time jump at the end, further allowing -- you guessed it -- growth of our characters. I'm excited to watch more of them when (if?) Ashlynn's story comes out.

TOURING with ...

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FTC Disclosure

Unless otherwise stated, all books I review are books I've received for free from the author or publisher. I receive nothing, monetary or otherwise, for expressing my opinion and/or promoting the books. I do, however, participate in the Amazon Affiliate program, and as such I do receive a small commission when these links are clicked. Affiliate links and free books in no way affect my opinion.